Wednesday, July 9, 2008

You know...I don't really respect Jeff Koons. Because to me, he stands for a lot of things I hate about contemporary art. I don't like him. That being said...I do like his series of giant stainless steel sculptures and did want to see them on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Am I so easily seduced by shiny things? Apparently, yes.

Also at the Met right now is the exhibit Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. Some are real costumes (like from the film Iron Man) and others are pieces made by designers (like Dolce & Gabbana) who were inspired by comic culture. The mixture of originals and reimagined designs made for a very fun show. POW!

Louise Bourgeois is one of those artists I've always known but never really known. So I was excited to get to know her work better through her current show at the Guggenheim! As an artist, I really admire how absurdly prolific she is and how her work has evolved over the decades...she is 96 years old and is still making art! Text scrolled across one of her drawings poignantly sighs, "It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive." Here, here.She's known best perhaps for her giant spider sculptures...Her sculptures of organic soft forms imply landscapes, clouds, and of course fleshy ambiguous body parts. It's intimate and sexual, and was a reaction against the hard edged geometry of minimalism back in the day.Her work later moved from large marble/ plaster/ latex sculptures to cells...they are these little enclosed rooms made from found and sculpted objects. Little domestic settings you peer into...the artifacts speaking of memory and vulnerability.This quote was embroidered on a bedspread in one of her cell rooms...thanks, Louise.